These days, the word on nearly everyone’s lips seems to be “value.” No matter whom you’re trying to reach, you can bet you’re competing for time and money. That’s why it’s critical to provide easily recognizable value in each element of your communications plan.

Enter the mission statement. Keeping these carefully chosen words top-of-mind through topic generation, design and implementation helps you deliver substantive communications consistently. The basic steps below can help you get started.

* Identify your target. Get specific about your audience’s gender, age, socioeconomic status, reading level, ethnicity, region and environment. Consider challenges they face with your industry. Generate information from focus groups, mail and phone surveys, and online audience panels.

* Define your objective and how you’ll meet it. Outline what you hope to accomplish in each issue or update. Also, determine which of your audience’s wants and needs you’ll address. Describe kinds of content that will convey the information effectively and a design strategy (including colors and images) that will evoke the response you seek. Also, consider whether a message will be better received in one platform, such as print, over another, like a podcast.

* Craft the statement. A mission statement should never be longer than 100 words, so use active verbs and limit jargon. Be sure it answers this question: How will this initiative meet the audience’s needs?

* Share the message. Be sure anyone who’s part of the initiative’s creation and execution, from senior staff through freelance coders, gets a copy of the mission statement. It’s one way to keep your communication’s value to readers front and center.

More and more companies are providing support through Twitter. Readwriteweb.com has this to say:

There has been a lot of talk lately of companies monitoring social media, be it Twitter, blogs, or social networking sites, for mentions of their company name and responding to customer service issues. Some of this interaction has been in the Twitter community, with Comcast being one of the more active participants as of late. Although in some cases, customers twittered their frustration after failing to receive the support they needed through traditional methods, in many cases, Twitter was the first place the customers vented their frustration, and then were surprised when they received a response from a support rep or company spokesperson.

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A few days ago I was in a client meeting when the conversation turned to low-or-no cost ways for businesses to promote themselves. As soon as I brought up Facebook’s newly revamped business pages one of my clients turned to me and said, “Facebook? Isn’t that just for kids having fun? Why would a business use it?

First of all, Facebook isn’t just for kids - the 35+ demographic is increasing steadily. Second of all, why not Facebook? There are multiple advantages and very few disadvantages to creating a business page.

Advantages:

• It’s growing. As more and more adults join, they bring their interests with them. Having a business page people can become a “fan” of, or a group people can join lets them express their interests and share it with others.
• It’s viral. You may start out with just a few fans or group members, but you can be sure that people they are friends with will see it on their profile. All it takes is a few curious people clicking on the link and joining themselves and your popularity will spread with no work on your behalf.
• Its as interactive as you want it to be. Its easy to post pictures, video, job openings, goals, testimonials, etc.
• It gives you a forum to monitor what people are saying, and respond to questions and negative comments.
• It keeps you relevant.  More and more businesses are on Facebook, do you want to be the only one who’s not?
• Its free!

Disadvantages:

• [Some] time and effort. Setting up your page well, updating it and monitoring comments are important tasks that need to be executed consistently and by someone who understands the medium. This could be an employee in virtually any department.
• Negativity. People can and will comment, and you need to be ready to respond.

Want to check it out? Here are links to Beyond175’s business page, McMurry’s health and wellness group, and McMurry’s business page. Become a fan, or set one up of your own!